TO paraphrase Paul Simon, every generation sends an action hero up the box office charts, whether it was the swashbuckling Douglas Fairbanks in the silent era, the stoic John Wayne midcentury, the hip Steve McQueen in the 1960s and ’70s, or the musclebound Sylvester Stallone in the ’80s.

The turn of the millennium offered its own template in Jason Statham, whose evolution from minor screen thug to global action star has brought him to “Parker,” opening Jan. 25, in which he plays the title character, the celebrated career criminal dreamed up by the novelist Donald E. Westlake (writing as Richard Stark). The production has a seasoned director (Taylor Hackford) and supporting cast (Nick Nolte, Patti LuPone, Michael Chiklis), and a glamorous leading lady (Jennifer Lopez). Will it be the film that finally pushes Mr. Statham into a Hollywood tier above his usual shoot-’em-up ghetto? Certainly this actor, 45, possesses a charisma transcending the genre.

His debut was modest but promising. The British director Guy Ritchie (“Sherlock Holmes”) midwifed Mr. Statham’s arrival, in “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels,” a beery, rambunctious 1998 free-for-all about British gamblers and hooligans.

In the first shot an uncharacteristically effusive Mr. Statham (pronounced STAY-thim) hawks stolen jewelry on the street. It isn’t entirely an act; Mr. Statham, born in Derbyshire, hustled goods with his father in Norfolk market stalls growing up. Minutes later, when his character, pursued by a constable, bounds over a traffic barrier, we see the agility of this actor, for years a member of the British national diving team. Later, in a frenetic binge-drinking montage, he executes a standing back flip. But Mr. Ritchie must have seen something in Mr. Statham besides acrobatics; a sympathetic dimension, perhaps, a humanity.

In 2000 Mr. Ritchie cast him as the central narrator of “Snatch,” another British ensemble caper, about diamonds, bookmakers and unlicensed boxing. But Mr. Statham was overshadowed by Brad Pitt and Benicio Del Toro, and the role sentenced him to a career as a screen criminal. Who else has titles like “The Bank Job” and “The Italian Job” on his résumé? There he is as a kidnapper in “Cellular,” a drug dealer in “Turn It Up,” a convict in “Death Race.”

But in his breakthrough he was a very smooth criminal. In 2002 the French director-producer Luc Besson (“La Femme Nikita”) cast him as the dapper Frank Martin in “The Transporter,” an action picture that goes down like cool prosecco. Martin is a getaway driver and underworld deliveryman with principles; any deviation from “the deal” is anathema. Things get complicated when he breaks his code and falls for his cargo (Shu Qi), the daughter of a human trafficker.

Photo

Mr. Statham in a familiar stance in a scene from the frenetic “Crank” (2006).Credit
Ron Batzdorf/Lionsgate

“The Transporter” capitalizes on gorgeous French Riviera locations, blithe humor, flashy cars and spectacular stunts. And then there is Mr. Statham, easily stepping into dazzling fight sequences choreographed by the director, the martial-arts veteran Cory Yuen. Steven Seagal may have aikido moves, but not Mr. Statham’s elegance in a suit (before “Lock, Stock” he was a model), nor his compact grace and stubbled, close-cropped sex appeal. (It’s no accident that Martin has a habit of doffing his shirt mid-brawl.) Not since Sean Connery had the action genre seen such Continental savoir-faire. Mr. Connery, however, couldn’t execute a roundhouse kick.

But Mr. Statham the actor didn’t take the genre too seriously. As Clint Eastwood did in “City Heat,” he sent up his persona in Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor’s 2006 cult favorite “Crank,” a delirious exercise in comic macho excess, edited at blinding speed. “Crank” — about a poisoned hit man forced to consume all manner of stimulants (cocaine, Red Bull, epinephrine) to keep his heart from giving out — has Mr. Statham piloting a motorcycle in a hospital smock, copulating in front of a tourist bus and calling his girlfriend as he plummets from a helicopter. “Crank 2: High Voltage” takes the parody further: Mr. Statham bites into jumper cables and fights an opponent amid a shower of sparks at a power station, their slow-motion blows evoking combatants in Japanese monster movies.

“The Bank Job,” from 2008, directed by Roger Donaldson and based on an actual 1971 London heist, returned Mr. Statham to firm ground, buoyed by a tight script, a strong cast (including Saffron Burrows and David Suchet) and a role tailor-made for him. As Terry Leather, the leader of a hapless gang, he plays a loyal but flawed husband trying to improve his family’s lot but in over his head with a pornographer, loan sharks and the royal family.

Mr. Statham is at his best here: shrewd, tough, compassionate, appealing without a fancy car or a gun. In his plain-spoken bearing he exudes an integrity devoid of upper-crust pretensions. His performance is winning because it feels authentic, and it feels authentic because in the case of Mr. Statham, a working-class high school dropout, it is.

But acting requires more than authenticity. In 2006 Mr. Statham stretched a little, with “London,” a little-seen character study about victims of love at a loft party, featuring his “Cellular” co-stars Jessica Biel and Chris Evans. Mr. Statham, as a commodities dealer with a secret, at one point offers a rare display of vulnerability.

It’s a worthy effort, but not enough. After all, an action star like Steve McQueen had his dramas (“The Cincinnati Kid”) and romances (“Love With a Proper Stranger”), playing not only men of action but men of complexity and inner conflict. Mr. Statham needs to do the same. Lately he has done only cursory movies — “Killer Elite,” “Safe,” “The Mechanic” — and the “Expendables” films, orgies of gunplay, explosions and wrinkled pugilists.

It remains to be seen whether “Parker” can raise Mr. Statham’s standing. His next movie, though, finds him in good company: “Hummingbird” is a drama written and directed by Steven Knight (“Dirty Pretty Things”), in which Mr. Statham plays a haunted veteran who assumes a wealthy Londoner’s identity. Trust him to put up a good fight; he’s pretty skilled at that.

A version of this article appears in print on January 20, 2013, on page AR19 of the New York edition with the headline: Action Star With Savoir-Faire and a Killer Kick. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe